Sunday, October 10, 2010

To Winnie, who tries hard


Where did this 80 degree October weather come from?

Tailgating on Saturday was absolutely beautiful. Had a good time with Friends, McGraws, Cashes, et al.

We spent both Friday and Saturday night at the Friends' house. Tiff scored us a babysitter for Sophie and her one-year-old, Tanner for game day. It was a relief not to have to take to the two of them with us. They had fun playing together with the babysitter, and Tiff and I didn't have to spend our entire day chasing and carrying toddlers. We did take Travis and Noah, and their three-year-old Ganon, with us. Do I feel a little bad about leaving Sophie behind? Sure I do. But mostly not. Let's say 98% not. She's a terrific kid, but busy, wide-open fields and adventurous one-year-olds do not a good combination make.

We loaded up in Winnie, the Friends' classic 1976 RV. Winnie's only purpose in life is to give us space in the RV lot at the tailgating field at Ball State homecoming, and to provide us with an alternative to the port-a-potty while tailgating. She's a little rough, and full of style with her orange shag carpeting and wallpapered refrigerator, but she does her job with dignity and pride. Well, maybe not dignity.


For this trip, Shawn had fixed the fuel gauge, which had never before worked. It showed half a tank of gas. Unfortunately, the gauge was hooked up to the wrong gas tank. Winnie has a front tank and a rear tank, and whichever one was actually pumping fuel to the engine was, in fact, very close to empty. And made it all the way to empty as we were driving home after the game. That's a picture of Shawn, I think switching the fuel lines to the opposite tank, or something.

But it was just a mild hiccup in the day. And aside from the pathetic display of Cardinal football (it was 31-6 when we left at halftime), we had a very nice weekend.

This afternoon, after arriving home, I was vegging in the recliner watching the Colts, when I remembered (at 3:43 pm) that Travis had a birthday party at MegaPlay for one of his classmates, starting at 4. I quickly loaded up Travis (and, at the last minute, Noah, who begged and begged to go), we made our way to Meijer to pick up a gift since I'd forgotten to do that earlier in the week, then off to the party. Travis played mini-golf with the party guests while Noah and I racked up tickets playing Skee-ball and other games. And again, Sophie got left at home. But I don't think she minded. She got to cuddle with dad and watch football.

Oh, and one more thing. About three weeks ago, I was summoned for jury duty. I was to appear at the court on a Monday around noon. The weekend before that, Ben and I were at a football party, and ended up striking up a conversation with an attorney and his wife. Rob, the host of the party, kept badgering this attorney about coming with him to Chicago for an upcoming Cubs/Reds game. The attorney kept saying, "I can't, I have a trial.... if it ends up settling, maybe I can go..." As the night went on, his wife joked, "just settle it! then you can go to the game!" On the way home, Ben and I were laughing about what really goes on when an attorney counsels his client to settle a trial.... its because he has a Cubs game he wants to attend.

At any rate, that party was a Saturday. On Sunday, I got a voice mail from the court that the trial for which I had been summoned for jury duty had cancelled, so I did not need to appear. Ben joked that it must have been that same trial, and that our attorney friend must have decided to go to the Cubs game after all.

Well, I just got summoned again. I have to appear at the court on my birthday. Terrific. Maybe I'll see if I can find out who the attorneys are, and get them tickets to a Notre Dame game or something.

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